Polish School Classes, Indiana

The following document originates from Poland and PolishRoots is pleased to bring this limited yet rare material to the web. The original consists of 4 pages and is titled, "Klasyfikacya Uczennic Szkoły Trywialnej Tarnowskiej Ułozona Porządkiem Godnosci w Postępie Naukowym po Ukonczonem Drugiem Połroczu 1854".

From Peter Jassem in Toronto, the translation and explanation is as follows:

"Classification of Female Students of the Trivium School in Tarnow Arranged According to the Academic Achievement on the Completion of the Second Semester of 1854".

"Trivium" (Latin) or "Szkola Trywialna" (Polish) used to be a school teaching liberal arts and providing a bachelor's degree (just as a College of Liberal Arts in North America does today), while "quadrivium" would award a master of arts degree.

Szkola Trywialna in Tarnow was a two-year course for future teachers of liberal arts or catechism. (Source: Slownik Jezyka Polskiego by W. Doroszewski). The Jewish girls chose to study liberal arts rather than catechism, I imagine. This little data base is important as it lists the cream of the Tarnow (and area) youth, the best female students of a college in the middle of 19th century, when not so many females, Christian or Jewish, had a chance of higher education.

There is a Second, First, and Elementary Class listed with names of those students achieving awards and successfully progressing to the next level. Others are noted as not successfully completing the requirements, but no names of these students are listed.

There are three priests teaching Catechism, and one teacher listed as Nauczycielka robot. Anyone linking to any of these students is requested to contact Paul Valasek to add additional information to enrich this database. PolishRoots would like to thank Peter Jassem for his added information and knowledge of the Polish school system.